Le Gabrielle Crepes & Waffles — Restaurant in Winder

Le Gabrielle Crepes & Waffles

Update: second visit and much better. This time I enjoy Eggs Benedict with ham instead of fried chicken and the house coffee. The side was very flavorful roasted potatoes, onions and bell peppers. The coffee is a fabulous medium roast with low acidity. Rich flavor and great with a meal or dessert. The waffle was crispy enough to support the roasted ham, poached eggs and hollandaise. It never got soggy. Eggs were perfection. The hollandaise is understandably pre-made. It is not time or cost efficient for restaurants to make fresh hollandaise sauce. As prepared hollandaise goes, it was okay. I have used these at home. Prepared hollandaise has little to no flavor. I recommend adding a little salt and lemon juice. Other than that (no stars deducted), this visit was much better. Star rate at 4 of 5 stars because the place is so noisy and the bar chairs are not comfortable.

Original post: Tonight I decided to support a local Winder restaurant. Having visited another nearby French restaurant, anticipation was high. Before getting into the details, please know these are my own reflections and not necessarily shared by other diners.

Atmosphere is important to me. It may be due to the nature of the older buildings and small space, but the dining room is very noisy. It is reminiscent of a school cafeteria. Decor, however, it nice. Seating is comfortable.

The staff were very attentive. The hostess on duty was great as were the servers.

I ordered the lobster and shrimp crepes. They were brought out shortly afterwards and plated beautifully with a simple salad and some kind of smeared gel that tasted good.

The crepes were not crisp. They were barely cooked and spongy. The shrimp were tiny frozen cocktail shrimp defrosted and cooked without seasoning. The lobster looked like frozen langostino also cooked or defrosted without seasoning. There was no actual seafood taste or texture. The crepes were covered in a canned or frozen lobster bisque which did have a nice flavor. The dish was lightly dusted with fresh finely chopped parsley which added a bit of freshness.

The salad greens were very tender and drizzled with a simple sauce that tasted like mayonnaise, lemon, milk and parsley. No salt or pepper.

I ordered a peach and cream crepe for dessert. That crepe was half raw. The peaches were chopped up straight from a can. The caramel sauce, whipped cream and cinnamon seasoning were nice.

This was not a terrible experience as much as simply disappointing. Definitely not worth what I paid for dinner. I can definitely cook better at home.

Advice: Use better seafood and cook it with appropriate seasonings (not spicy, just flavorful).

Cook the crepes until golden brown. They could be a little thinner, too.

Use fresh or defrosted peaches and grill them first. The caramelized peaches with the dulce de leche drizzle would be a game changer.

The salad dressing needs just a little more acid (lemon juice?) and maybe a fresh Herbs de Provence blend.

French cuisine traditionally is very fresh and locally sourced. Flour crepes are thin with crispy edges. Fresh herb blends, salt and pepper are simple seasoning enhancements to meats and vegetables.

This restaurant is off to a good start. Improvements could be made to some of the cooking techniques.

Overall, the menu is unique. There are more traditional dishes along with Chef Specials, unique cocktails, appetizers, desserts and a wine menu. The offerings looked interesting.

I will definitely go back and order...

With sadness I rate them so low. I brought my sister to the Winder location for her birthday. It was fabulous. So when my older sisters birthday came around I picked this place. Big mistake. Our seats were the first problem. We were no farther than 3 feet from two men at a table stuck in the corner with ours. This should be a spot for 4 people that know each other. They were entirely too close. I could’ve touched his arm. Don’t know who he was but he was that close. I’m sure they didn’t appreciate it much either. We whispered most of the meal. Lady talk and all. Most of my coffee was spilled onto the saucer on the way to the table and our waitress threw a napkin over the mess and left. Didn’t refill the cup. Our waters had very little ice when it came out and after 10 minutes was lukewarm water, which is all we had for the 1 1/2 hours we were there. I had to wait 30 minutes for a coffee refill. She should’ve noticed at that time we had no ice. She said several times your order is in the way. After an hour or so I asked for manager. She had just told him (an hour late) that she forgot to place our order. Meals came out about 15 minutes later. My sisters waffle was dry and flaky and covered in sugar, that she had requested be left off, she can’t eat sugar. We weren’t prepared to wait another 30 minutes for the food that should’ve been ordered over a hour ago. Still no cold drinks. Meal was comped. Thank God I’d hate to of had to pay for the frustration that they gave on what should’ve been a happy celebration. You can give free food but cannot make her day nice. We won’t be returning. Hire people that know the industry. You have a nice place and if you want return customers, you need to have experienced waiters and waitresses. We all forget but her dishonest approach was so wrong. I wonder if she would have ever said anything if I had not went into the back for a manager. Worst birthday meal I’ve ever given to my sister or anyone for that matter. Such a shame as there are 4 of us and we look for good celebration spots. This one didn’t pass the test, at all. **I had no success in sending email. And I think I covered what happened. My order was lost. Waitress found it almost an hour later. Continued to be dishonest. Didnt tell her manager until I headed towards the kitchen. Long story short. Meal was ruined due to the anxiety of what was or wasn’t served. We are celebrating another birthday today and will give this place another try but will definitely go to the Monroe Location. I’ll follow up...

We arrived at 11 am on a Sunday after church. We had 10 total in our party but we told the hostess we were good with being broken up (5 and 5). She told us it would be 45 minutes if we stayed together and we told her we were good with whatever came first. We watched them seat MULTIPLE people, in the HOUR AND A HALF, in 4 person tables. They easily could have pulled up a chair to seat us as two parties. The issues is the hostess isn’t able to think outside the box and obviously no one is managing.

Finally, we placed to go orders and after a tense conversation, we sat at a table and ate our orders. The manager apologized for the hostesses tone but didn’t seem to understand our issue was with how they chose to seat us.

Also, allowing “call ahead” reservations to have 20 minutes to arrive is asinine. No other restaurant does that. None. You are losing business on people who are there, ready to order and eat.

The food was okay. Probably would have been better if it were fresh. We had no choice but to order to go bc we made the 6 children in our party wait for breakfast for double (and half once they ate) the amount of time we told them it would be.

Edited to add—It was never said that the restaurant was “making an exception” for our large party as the response states. We waited over half the time quoted and never once did anyone say (after checking in at the 1 he point) that it’s usually a 1.5-2 hr wait. We would have left. We had a newborn and 3, 4, 5 and two 8 year olds.

The comment about humility is so extremely backhanded and rude. Even customers leaving the restaurant commented on us “being there all day”.

Again, we never would have waited if we were told the wait is usually 2 hours. We told the hostess 3 times we were good with being separated. She offered us high tops in the hallway that seated two.

Thanks for the response but it sounds like you are just blaming...